Andy Maher suffers injury while running for Carlton’s AFLW team
His beloved Blues might have trounced Richmond in the AFLW season-opener, but radio and TV personality Andy Maher — who doubles as the team’s runner — had a shocker, taking out one of his own players and then going down himself.
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Carlton has suffered its first serious injury of the season — to the Blues biggest fan and AFLW runner Andy Maher.
The radio and TV personality was felled with what looked to be a serious calf injury in the third quarter, requiring treatment from trainers during the Blues’ 6.12 (48) to 2.2 (14) win.
He hobbled to the three-quarter time huddle and was unable to run messages for coach Daniel Harford for the rest of the game, providing plenty of ammunition for his television show, The Front Bar.
Andy Maher says he’ll be out of running duties for 3 weeks after popping his calf
— 7AFL (@7AFL) February 7, 2020
(...and providing some quality content for @thefrontbar7 🤣) pic.twitter.com/7OBQ3LI1J3
“He’s basically just a nuffie with a pink shirt,” Harford said.
“I pushed him through the gate to get a message out and it was a bit urgent at the time.
“And then I saw him pop the calf, and I thought ‘oh, man, I don’t need this because it’s gonna be big news, because ‘Radar’ is ‘Radar’.
“At that stage, it was a really important message I needed to get out and he couldn’t get the message out in the time that I wanted to.
“I was annoyed that he couldn’t give the message and was annoyed that he’d popped his calf and that I had to change runners at three-quarter time.”
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Maher said on Seven he didn’t believe the injury would be “season-ending”.
“The calf just popped straight away, I’ve done one before in my so I know when it happens … old man’s curse has struck, I’m in a bit of pain,” Maher said.
“I’m a quick healer, I’m giving myself two or three weeks.”
Blues skipper Katie Loynes revealed it had been a disaster night for Maher.
“He actually took down one of the girls before the game,” Loynes said.
“He gets too excited. He was jumping around with the bag and knocked one of the girls over.
“I was like ‘oh, god’.”
Harford said he was forced to “yell really loudly or get players to do it” once he lost Maher’s services for the final term.
“You try and relay the message, but it ends up being Chinese whispers,” he said.
“We had yellow elephant purple truck there at one stage. We didn’t quite get the message we wanted.
“But anyway, it worked out OK.”
Harford — in typical football jargon — joked that Maher was “on his way to the Epworth” Hospital.
“Scans … the physios have said they’re not quite sure, they’ll send him for scans, he’s on his way to the Epworth now,” he said.
“I think (Channel 7 journalist) Tom Browne’s jumping out of a bin to try and find out what he’s got going on there.
“I’m not sure what’s happening.”